


Crouching Lily, Hidden Sunshine

by ladyroxanne21



Series: Punish Me [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Harry moves to america, M/M, Mpreg, Surprise Draco!, bad breakup
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-25
Updated: 2016-10-25
Packaged: 2018-08-24 13:15:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8373565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyroxanne21/pseuds/ladyroxanne21
Summary: Eleven years after a bad breakup, Harry brings his daughter back to London to buy her the things she needs to go to Hogwarts. The last thing he expected was to run into Draco and his son.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This came to me in a dream. I hope you like it :-)

Harry was rather angry and not thinking straight. He grabbed the nearest – literally the first vial of green potion he came across and quickly paid for it so that he could go home and snarl about the way reporters always thought it was fine to hound him for private information. It was already five months after the end of the war and everyone still treated him as if he had literally  _just_ defeated Voldemort and should be praised and worshiped.

It was enough to drive him mad!

The moment he Apparated into his house, he downed the headache remedy and threw the empty vial so that it shattered against a wall.

“Problem?” Draco asked in concern.

“Rita and her posse of media vampires were harassing me again!” Harry roared in frustration.

Draco had been living with Harry for a couple of months now, so he knew that the best remedy for Harry's emotional outburst was to order him about. “Go make me a plate of strawberries dipped in chocolate and drizzled with hand-whipped cream.”

Harry grumbled continuously even as he complied. When the treat was ready to eat, Harry stopped his grumbling long enough to feed them to Draco one at a time. After that, he was feeling much better.

Draco grabbed Harry by the hair, then dragged him to and flung him onto the bed. The two had a mini wrestling match that ended with them both naked and kissing so hard that there would definitely be bruising later.

“Now!” Harry cried out impatiently. 

Draco cast the necessary spells on Harry and sank into him with a happy sigh.

“Harder!” Harry growled. “Really pound into me! Make me hurt!”

Draco bit back a sigh of frustration and did his best to comply. It was hot and heavy and quick, both reaching their climax within minutes. Harry nearly purred as he snuggled into Draco afterwards.

“Let's take a nap, and then you can beat me up and choke me while you do me again,” Harry suggested with a moan of anticipation.

Draco sighed and shook his head. “Yes to the nap, no to the beating and choking.”

“I know that you love doing twisted things to me, so what's wrong? Not twisted enough for you? Would you like me to lick your boots clean first or something?” Harry asked with a puzzled frown.

Draco pushed Harry away and slid out of bed. “I told you that I didn't want to do those sort of things! I don't mind ordering you about and humiliating you if you insist on me continuing to punish you, but even what just happened is too rough for my liking. I want  _normal_ sex – where figuring out how to hurt you just the way you like isn't part of the equation at all!”

“I do everything you ask and all I want in return is for you to be rough with me during sex,” Harry pointed out reasonably. “Is that really too much to ask? It seems like you have no objections most of the time.”

“That's because I thought you'd eventually grow bored with that and stop asking for it, but it's all you ever want!” Draco protested hotly.

“It's what I like!” Harry countered emphatically.

“Well I don't! I've had more than enough of things like that!” Draco roared, and then gasped as he realized what he had just admitted. As a rule, they generally didn't talk too much about the things that had happened to Draco in the past. He quickly turned his back on Harry.

“Draco,” Harry murmured as realization washed over him. “I –”

But Draco cut him off. “You know what? I just realized that this isn't working. We don't really get along. You only pretend to get along with me so that I'll do those things you want, and I don't want to anymore. I've had enough! I'm going home.”

With that statement of finality, Draco turned to summon his favorite belongings. Harry felt like all the blood drained from his face. He quickly decided to distract Draco by picking a fight. It usually worked; they'd argue until they grabbed each other and kissed and shagged until they forgot what they were fighting about.

This time it didn't work. When Draco realized what Harry was doing – in the middle of shouting about something he completely forgot the moment it was out of his mouth – he simply shut his mouth, shook his head, and glared at Harry. Without another word, he Disapparated straight to his bedroom in Malfoy Manor.

“No!” Harry cried out, a hand reaching toward where Draco had been as if he could physically wrench him back.

For a week, Harry tried everything he could to reach Draco – Apparate to him (he was blocked by the wards); Floo to see him (again, blocked by the wards); send owls of apology (which were sent back unopened). He even tried sitting just outside the gate to the Manor until Draco relented and talked to him, but he never did.

After that, Harry flung himself into bed and never left it unless he direly had to use the loo. If not for Hermione and Ron insisting that he at least eat something each night, he probably would have starved to death. His misery continued to spiral downward over the course of the next two months until he was literally vomiting from it. When he reached a point where he was so listless that he couldn't even respond to his name, Hermione finally snapped and brought him into St. Mungo's.

She was prepared to have him committed to the mental health ward if necessary, but first, the Healers had to fix whatever was wrong with him. As it turned out, it was a good thing that Hermione had acted when she did. Harry was so malnourished and dehydrated that he could have actually died without medical attention.

It took three or four days for Harry to recover, but he still wouldn't really talk to anyone. He only answered yes or no questions when forced to – such as when his Healer threatened to feed him excrement tasting sludge if he didn't answer a simple: “Are you feeling better?”

“No,” Harry murmured just before he vomited over the side of the hospital bed.

Alarmed, Healer Rowe cast every diagnostic spell she knew, even – as a desperate last resort – a pregnancy test. To her astonishment, it came back positive. She recast the test spell three more times before moving onto a hologram spell to verify that Harry really was pregnant. Sure enough, he had a womb with a baby inside. The baby measured about two months along and looked healthy.

Hermione and Ron gaped at Harry in shock as they repeatedly glanced back and forth between him and the hologram of the baby. Harry was too busy staring at the ceiling and wallowing in his misery to care about anything. Thus, he had no idea what was going on. The looks on his two best friends' faces made the hair on the back of his neck stand up, so he looked at them with something vaguely akin to curiosity.

“What?” 

“Harry...” Hermione exhaled reverently. “You're pregnant...”

This managed to penetrate the fog around his mind. He sat up abruptly. “What?!”

Healer Rowe smiled in relief that Harry finally seemed to be responding. Then she pointed out the baby in the hologram and talked about things like due dates and how many weeks – eight and three days – the baby had been in there. This correlated exactly to when Harry had last seen Draco, which made him burst out in silent tears and sling an arm over his face.

Ron put a hand on Harry's shoulder to offer support and comfort even as he talked to the Healer. “How did this happen?”

“There's only one way for a wizard to get pregnant, and that's to take a fertility potion,” Rowe stated. “Diagnostics confirm that there are traces of potion in the amniotic fluid, so that's how it happened.”

“But...” Ron was definitely confused. “Harry never mentioned taking a fertility potion – or planning to get pregnant.”

“Do you think Draco slipped it to him?” Hermione asked, trying to whisper the question in Ron's ear, but Harry heard her anyway.

“No...” Harry murmured in a voice just slightly shaky from silent tears. “He wouldn't do something like that. But I still don't understand. The only potion I took on the day I last saw him – the day you say I conceived – was a headache potion.”

“Ah,” Healer Rowe stated in understanding. “A _green_ headache potion?”

“Well yeah,” Harry stated because he'd never seen a headache potion in any other color.

“Did you read the label carefully?” Rowe asked.

“Er... no...” Harry admitted, no longer crying, but still feeling heavily depressed. “I just picked the first vial of green potion I could find.”

“Well, that's likely the problem right there,” Healer Rowe announced with an irreverently cheeky smirk. “Fertility potions are green too.”

Harry stared at the hologram numbly. “There's no point...”

Rowe wasn't the only one to frown in confusion. “No point?”

Harry shook his head. “There's no point in having a baby if Draco's not there with me.”

Rowe raised a brow and looked to Hermione. Hermione shrugged. “Harry and Draco were together until they had a huge fight and Draco left. Harry's been half gone ever since,” she explained, gesturing to the way Harry was staring vacantly off into space.

“Ah,” Rowe murmured diplomatically. “Well, I can keep Harry a few more days, until I'm certain he's doing better and that the baby is being properly nourished. After that, it'll be up to you to ensure that Harry moves on and hopefully cheers up.”

“We'll try,” Ron promised, already making plans to move Harry into the burrow for Molly and Ginny to fuss over.

 

***

 

Harry read the Daily Prophet with an amused smirk. “They're still taking bets on whether I've died or simply vanished.”

Hermione frowned. “Well... It  _has_ been more than three years since you withdrew from public.” 

She was concerned because Harry hadn't  _just_ hidden from the Wizarding World, but the muggle one too. He'd more or less become a hermit. There were only three places he ever went – the Burrow, Grimmauld Place, and Ron and Hermione's flat. All of which were heavily warded against all intrusions – especially the media.

“It's not healthy,” she muttered darkly, provoking a sigh from Harry.

“I know...” he admitted softly. “But I don't want my daughter growing up in a world where everyone obsesses over me because I killed an evil man.”

Ron and Hermione exchanged a significant look. Then Ron cleared his throat. “Then don't let her... Find somewhere else to raise her. Just don't make her grow up a hermit because you don't want to go out in public.”

“Where else would I go?” Harry wondered curiously. 

“Anywhere, as long as you feel safe,” Hermione stated.

“I'll think about it,” Harry promised vaguely, which made them think that he was just humoring them.

To their surprise, it was only a month later when Harry announced that he was moving to America. He had done some research and made a list of all the places that he wanted to see in the U.S. He figured that by the time he was done, he'd either be ready to come home and rejoin the Wizarding World, or... he'd have fallen in love with America and want to stay.

None of his loved ones particularly liked this idea, but they understood that Harry needed to do something – _anything_ – before he wasted his entire life. They all wished him luck and promised to come visit when they could.

 

***

 

Draco was strolling along Diagon Alley with his mother and his son. Scorpius was already five years old and looked like a miniature Draco. Narcissa positively loved her grandson and doted on him atrociously.

“How about ice cream from Fortescue's?” She suggested, but before Draco could answer, a girl came running out of the alley behind Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.

She was giggling profusely even as she slapped a hand over her mouth in an effort to remain quiet. Her long blonde hair trailed behind her in a braid, even as she looked over her shoulder to see if she was being followed. Not looking where she was going, she ran straight into Draco, hastily apologized, and then hid behind him. Her snickering got louder.

Draco turned around so he could get a good look at the girl who had the audacity to use him as a hiding spot. She appeared to be about 10 years old and tall for her age. Her hair was so pale that it was nearly white. Her face was pointy and vaguely familiar, but her eyes were vibrant green jewels that fascinated him. It had been a  _long_ time since he'd last seen eyes that color.

A sudden wave of longing hit him like a punch to the gut. It took everything he had to push away the mental image of Harry, but he managed it. Meanwhile, the girl was winking at Scorpius.

“I'm playing hide and seek, so please don't give me away!” After that whispered confession, she abruptly – and with astonishing ease – climbed the side of the nearest shop. Draco nearly gaped at her incredulously.

“Draco...” his mother murmured, studying him suspiciously and looking a bit faint. “That child...”

“What about her?” Draco wondered. 

“She looks just like you did at that age,” Narcissa whispered.

“Are you saying I looked like a girl?” Draco asked, not appreciating the comparison at all.

Before Narcissa could clarify her statement, a man came running out of the alley behind the Weasleys' shop.

“Lily! Where'd you go?!”

Draco felt a sense of surrealism wash over him as the man stopped directly in front of him and they stared at each other.

“Potter.”

“Malfoy.”

“It's been...”

“Ages, I know.”

Both men felt awkward and neither knew what to say. Without warning, Lily jumped off the roof of the building she had climbed, and landed so that she was clinging onto Harry's back; her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.

“I got you, daddy!” 

Draco couldn't help but gasp softly in surprise.

Harry exhaled in relief. “Lily! Never run off like that when you don't know anything about the place you're at.”

Lily simply giggled. “There's nothing to worry about! You know that I can memorize the layout to a place in mere minutes.”

“Yeah, so? What if someone snatched you?” Harry pointed out grumpily.

“Then Sunshine would bite them and I'd kick them in the shin,” she informed him as she slid off his back and stood in front of him so that she could look him in the eyes. “Like this!” She promptly kicked his shin, making him grunt and take a step back.

Harry took a deep breath to curb his frustration and rubbed his temples. “Look, we need to finish up shopping so that you have everything you need to go to Hogwarts.”

Lily blatantly whinged. “But I don't want to go to Hogwarts!”

“We talked about this and you agreed to give it a try,” Harry reminded her.

“But it sounds _soooo boring!_ ” Lily growled, rolling her head around to emphasize her point. “In my last school, we were never expected to just sit there and do nothing.”

“You'll be learning spells,” Harry pointed out. “It's hardly boring.”

Lily huffed. “I don't want to learn spells! I want to go home! Auntie 'Mione told me all about how Hogwarts Professors will expect me to sit still and never do anything fun.”

“I _know_ 'Mione never said anything like that,” Harry chided sternly.

“In my last school, my first class of the day was gymnastics,” Lily pointed out. As she said this, she performed a couple of flips until she had the momentum to leap up onto the roof she had recently jumped off of. “And then my second class was –” She stopped abruptly and spread her arms dramatically, twirling around as if the roof was a mountain or a stage. “ _The hills are alive with the sound of music, with songs they have sung for a thousand years, the hills fill my heart with the sound of music, my heart wants to sing every song it hears._ ”

“At Hogwarts, you'll be able to learn how to fly a broom,” Harry cajoled.

“Why would I want to learn how to fly on a broom when I already know how to fly?” Lily asked curiously. She hopped onto a rope that hung between the two buildings – intended to hang banners, though it was empty at the moment – and promptly did cartwheels before flipping around the rope the way she was used to doing on bars back home.

“It's not the same,” Harry informed her. “And I'm certain you'll love flying on a broom.”

With a reluctant sigh, Lily gained the momentum she needed to fling herself off the rope, do a beautiful flip in the air, and land on her feet with an artistic flourish. “Fine, if you insist, we'll go buy this broom you think I'll like, but daddy, I'd still rather go home to America; to Circus Juventas. I'm the one most likely to get into Cirque du Soleil next year.” As she said this, she bounced and twirled in circles. Then she pointed toward the broom shop. “That way, right?”

Before Harry could even answer, she literally danced her way toward the shop. He rolled his eyes and slightly shook his head as he watched her go. Once more, she burst into song.

“ _I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire, 'cuz I am a champion, and you're gonna hear me roar, louder, louder than a lion, 'cuz I am a champion, and you're gonna hear me RO OH OH OH OH OAR!”_

“She sounds like a handful,” Draco remarked dryly as he watched her dance away. “Is she really yours?”

“Er, yeah,” Harry stated blandly. “It was... unexpected, seeing you again.” He gestured toward his daughter getting ever farther away. “But there's no time to get reacquainted. Have a nice life, Malfoy.”

Draco bit his lip in thought as Harry jogged after his daughter.

“Draco...” Narcissa murmured again. “Is it possible?”

Draco slowly shook his head. “How could it be?”

“Perhaps you should ask him,” Narcissa suggested pragmatically.

Scorpius tugged on Draco's sleeve. “Papa, I liked that girl. She was funny, and she leapt off that roof like she could fly!”

“Yes she did,” Draco agreed with a smile at his son.

“If she's going to Hogwarts, that makes her eleven – or very nearly so,” Narcissa added significantly.

“Eleven...” Draco murmured in thought. A frown took over his face as he added up the years and the months and came to the conclusion that, well, it _might_ be possible.

Trying to shake off the blood chilling possibility, Draco led his mother and son to Fortescue's. Just as they were sitting down to enjoy their ice cream at an outdoor table, the Potters emerged from the broom shop. Worse, the other two members of the Golden Trio had joined them, making the prospect of asking anything rather daunting.

“Once you learn to fly, I bet you'll love Quidditch too,” Harry said with a smile. “And if you're anything like me, you'll be a natural. The first time I learned that it was even possible to fly on a broom, I caught a Remembrall and made it onto my house team.”

Lily watched her father set the broom on the ground, and when told to, held her hand over it and commanded: “Up!” The broom flew into her hand so she instinctively mounted it and hovered about four feet in the air.

By this time, word had spread that Harry Potter was actually in Diagon Alley – as opposed to a prankster or a false sighting. A crowd had gathered and softly clapped to congratulate Harry on successfully teaching the girl how to fly. Rita Skeeter and the rest of the vultures – er, reporters – surrounded Harry to ask questions, which distracted him from his daughter.

Lily took the opportunity to carefully stand up on her broom and walk back and forth on it as if it was a tightrope. No one was truly paying any attention to her since all eyes were more or less on Harry. She zoomed around above their heads doing tricks that would have impressed a paying audience anywhere else. Draco watched her with a strange mix of curiosity and worry.  _Clearly_ the child was fearless and prone to doing dangerous things!

Harry was obviously flustered as he tried to answer questions honestly but without giving away too much private information. When Lily realized that her father wasn't watching her proudly as he usually did, she sighed in frustration and hung from her broom so that she was upside down – her knees hooked over the broom and her hands not touching it at all.

“Why are all these people so interested in you, daddy?” Lily asked. 

Harry looked up at her and laughed. “I  _knew_ you'd be a natural on a broom!”

“You didn't answer my question,” Lily stated with a frown.

“Er...” Harry droned, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand.

Ron came to his rescue. “You moved to America before you were old enough to realize that your father is famous.”

“He is?” Lily questioned, twirling around on the broom until she was sitting upright once more – side saddle rather than properly astride. “What for?”

Rita Skeeter gasped as if this was the biggest scandal ever. “How can the child of Harry Potter not know?!”

Other reporters reminded her that she'd missed a rather big question. Or ten. “Who's her mother?” “Are you married?” “How old is she?” “What's her name?” “Is she really your daughter?” “Why'd you move to America?”

Harry sighed in defeat. “I think it's time we left.” He beckoned to Lily, hoping that she would take the hint and quietly land so that they could Disapparate.

“No wait,” Lily insisted as she stood up on the broom again, riding it a bit like a surf board. “I think they should know that we moved to America so that I could attend Circus Juventas and learn so many wonderful things. If you're really famous, then they'll want to know that you've been happy, right?”

“Yeah, I suppose,” Harry agreed with a tiny smile.

Lily smiled brightly and nodded. “My daddy is the best daddy in the world! He always supports me, even when I do embarrassing things like dance on a broom and sing to a group of perfect strangers, like so:” She promptly burst into song, bouncing and dancing on her new broom as if she had years of practice doing so. “ _Just leave all your troubles behind now, My way is clear and true, Reach into the light, That shines in you_ .”

Her voice was a clear and beautiful soprano that everyone fell silent to listen to. She willed her broom to fly in circles above her audience as she performed. They hadn't realized it yet, but her greatest happiness in life was entertaining people.

Draco gestured for his mother to watch his son as he walked over to Harry. Harry was absorbed in watching his daughter, clearly proud of her. To be fair, the girl was like a ray of pure sunshine, so Harry had a reason to be proud. When Draco was close enough, he steeled himself as if he planned to shake a hornets' nest.

“ _It's time to go now, time to wave hello now._ ”

“Potter...” 

“ _Let your dreams be wings,_ ” Lily sang, delighted to be the center of attention, or nearly so.

“Potter!”

“ _That fly as far as stars._ ”

“ _Potter_!”

“What?!” Harry snapped, looking over to see Draco standing mere feet – perhaps two meters – away.

“Is she mine?” Draco asked, his expression dead serious. Lily fell silent as the crowd gasped incredulously.

“I really think it's time to go,” Harry called out to his daughter, holding his hand out to her insistently.

“Is she?” Draco demanded, upset that Harry was avoiding the question.

“Am I, daddy?” Lily asked, looking at Draco in fascination, having just realized how much they looked alike.

“Please come down from there,” Harry nearly begged. “We'll talk about this at home.”

“Real home?” Lily asked with a shrewd expression.

Harry sighed in frustration.

“Since you refuse to answer me, I can only assume the answer is yes,” Draco pressed on, growing angrier than ever. “Why didn't you ever tell me?”

“And how was I supposed to do that?!” Harry snapped angrily. “You left and wouldn't even read my owls! Did you want me to post it in the Daily Prophet?!” 

Draco was disconcerted to realize that he had nothing to say to that. Back then, he had really thought that the only way he could protect himself from the craziness of Harry was to simply not talk to him in  _any_ way and move on. Now, however, he was able to look back and admit that maybe he had overreacted.

Lily flew her broom so that it hovered at Draco's eye level, then she sat down, crossing one leg over the other and placing her folded hands over her knee. A glare that was nearly identical to Draco's sent a shiver down his spine.

“I can't remember _ever_ seeing my daddy this upset. You've upset my daddy! Stay away from us or I'll kick you in the shin and have Sunshine bite you,” Lily threatened very seriously, and then slowly whispered something. 

To prove her point, a snake that had been wrapped around her neck – that Draco had mistaken for a golden torc – slithered down her right arm, growing bigger as it did so. It was a breed of magical snake that Draco had never seen before and it hissed as it bared its fangs at him. He swallowed nervously.

“Sunshine is venomous and just a single bite would definitely kill you, so don't try anything,” Lily growled menacingly, then tossed her long blonde braid over her shoulder, huffed haughtily, and turned her back on him. “I'm ready to go now, daddy.”

Harry's relief was clear for everyone to see. He took his daughter's hand when she landed next to him with her broom in her other hand, and then promptly Disapparated. Draco was left nearly gaping at where they had been standing.

“That is – without a doubt – _the_ most Malfoy child I have ever met!” Rita Skeeter purred in delight. She ignored the glare that Draco sent her as she busily wrote in her notebook. “I simply cannot wait to find out what happens next!”

Draco sneered at her unappreciatively before returning to his mother and son. The three of them also Disapparated before anyone could think to ask him for more details on what was likely the juiciest piece of gossip in Wizarding history.

 

***

 

“And so that's what happened,” Harry finished explaining to his daughter.

“Huh...” Lily exhaled in thought. “You know, after the third or fourth time I asked why I didn't have a mother like all the other kids and you said you'd tell me when I was older, I thought it was because she died. I also thought you were being playful and silly when you told me that you were my mommy _and_ my daddy.”

“We say mummy here,” Harry reminded her.

“Not important, daddy,” Lily stated as she rolled her eyes.

“Er, right,” Harry murmured in agreement. “So, er... now that you know the truth, do you want to meet your father? Properly, I mean.”

Lily sighed heavily. “I just want to go home. I don't need to meet a man who dumped you and was never there for us.”

“Oh sweetheart!” Harry murmured in concern, pulling her into a hug and stroking her hair. “He would have been, had he known. He's not a bad man – er, well, he's not _entirely_ a bad man. He would have cherished you.”

Lily looked to the floor. “Do... D'you think that little boy... Do you think he might have been my... brother?”

“I dunno. Maybe,” Harry admitted.

“I don't need to meet that man, but if I really have a little brother...” she shrugged helplessly, not wanting to offend her father by saying the rest out loud.

“My darling,” Harry murmured, his voice thick with emotion. He pulled her into a hug and stroked her hair. “My precious little girl... I'll ask...”

“Thank you,” Lily whispered.

Harry decided that it was long past the time to cheer up. Forcing a smile, he kissed his daughter on the cheek. “Hey... how about you show me that new dance you're working on?”

Lily lit up with a brilliant grin. “ _Song_ and dance!”

“Right,” Harry acknowledged with a grin. He adored his daughter and simply _loved_ watching her perform. In return, she always did her best when she knew her daddy was watching.

 

***

 

Draco read the letter in silence, sighing morosely when he was finished. His wife watched him as she read a bedtime story to their son. The moment Scorpius fell asleep, she kissed his forehead and had a house elf bring him to bed.

“Anything the matter, dear?” She asked.

“Nothing is wrong, Astoria,” he assured her with a tight smile. “It's just that...” Draco faltered for a moment as he wondered how to address Harry, and finally settled on his first name. “Er, _Harry_ has written to say that Lily asked if she has a little brother, and if so, can she please meet him properly.”

Astoria was silent for one moment, then she gave her husband a tiny but genuinely warm smile. “Well, if she really  _is_ your daughter, then it would probably be a good thing to welcome her to the family. I think you should invite her over to spend some time with Scorpius, and then cast a blood spell to confirm that she's yours.”

Draco snorted lightly in amusement. “You wouldn't find it so hard to believe if you had seen her yourself. She looks just like me. Mother nearly fainted from the shock!”

“We have no plans for tomorrow,” Astoria suggested in a way that didn't seem to be her idea if he took the hint, which he did.

“Yes, tomorrow would be lovely,” Draco murmured before writing a response and giving it to the owl that was waiting.

Astoria put a hand on her husband's shoulder to comfort him. “If she really is your daughter and you want to get to know her, we'll do whatever it takes to make it work.”

With a small smile, Draco took her hand and kissed it. “It eases my mind to hear you say that.”

 

***

 

“Whoa...” Lily exhaled in awe as she stared at the gate to Malfoy Manor. “My other father lives _here_?”

Harry chuckled softly. “Yeah... He grew up as the only Heir to a wealthy family.”

“We're wealthy too, right?” Lily asked because her father had never worried about money. That said, they had always lived in moderate houses – when they weren't traveling about in an RV.

“Well, more or less,” Harry answered with a shrug. “But I wasn't raised that way. I was raised by my middle class Aunt and Uncle.”

Lily nodded in understanding because she knew a little about that.

A house elf appeared just inside the closed and magically warded gate. “Master is expecting you,” the elf said as he waved his hands to open the gate and let them pass through the wards.

Harry was tempted to smile when he felt his brave and normally fearless daughter slip her hand nervously in his.

“What if they don't like me, daddy?” Lily asked solemnly, her lower lip quivering just a little.

Harry took the time to kneel in front of her. “That is just not possible,” he assured her, giving her a hug and a kiss before standing up again. They quietly followed the elf, who led them down a long and winding lane to an enormous mansion. Then he led them off to the right side of the mansion into a beautiful and shady flower garden where a rectangular wrought iron table had been set up.

The family spotted them coming and stood up to gather in front of the table so that they could greet their guests. Lucius studied Lily with a thoughtful frown.

“Cast the test, Draco,” Lucius insisted coldly. “Or I will.”

Draco sent him a tiny glare. “Welcome to Malfoy Manor,” he greeted instead, feeling a genuine smile aim at Lily. Then he smoothed out his expression and looked to Harry. “May I cast a blood detection spell to confirm that she is mine?”

“You think my daddy would _lie_?” Lily asked incredulously.

Harry stroked her hair in a soothing gesture. “It's alright, Lily. Draco and I have a long history of not getting along. I'd be surprised if he  _didn't_ cast a spell. So yes, you may,” Harry added, addressing Draco directly.

Draco cast the spell, and when it confirmed that Lily truly was his daughter, he felt inexplicably shaky and faint. He took a deep breath to combat the urge to start shouting at Harry again for not telling him much sooner. When he was composed once more, he knelt in front of Lily and looked her in the eye.

“Hello Lily. I'm happy to meet you properly.”

Lily studied him warily. “Hello...”

Standing up again, Draco gestured toward his parents. “These are your grandparents, Lucius and Narcissa, and this is my wife, Astoria. You've already briefly met our son. Scorpius, this is your sister, Lily.”

Scorpius grinned at her. “Wow! I have a sister!” He excitedly threw his arms around her and she grinned bigger than ever before when she returned his hug. They both had nearly white hair and pointy faces. Both were tall for their age, although Scorpius was still shorter – at only five years old – than his eleven year old sister.

“I thought it was brilliant how you could flip about!” Scorpius announced, bouncing happily.

“Do you know how to do somersaults? I could teach you,” Lily offered.

“Isn't that just a fancy way to say rolling about, like so?” Scorpius asked, demonstrating by rolling along a clear path through the flowers.

“Good job!” Lily praised with a grin. “How about this?” She flung herself onto her hands and bent her knees just so to balance herself as she walked along the path on her hands.

“How'd'you do that?” Scorpius asked in awe.

“I can show you,” Lily promised with a smile. She then pointed to a clear area. “Come on, we're going to need room to move.” 

Scorpius nodded eagerly and ran after her.

“Well,” Draco stated a moment later. “Looks like they get along just fine.”

“I'm glad,” Harry murmured, not sure what else to say.

“Would you like a cup of tea, Mr. Potter?” Narcissa asked graciously.

“I'd like that, Mrs. Malfoy,” Harry answered with a grateful smile.

“I think I'll keep an eye on the children,” Lucius stated, and then held up his hands as if surrendering. “Not to fear, I promise that I would never harm a Malfoy, not even one belonging to you...”

Harry took a deep breath, and then nodded permission. It was probably for the best all around if Harry and Lucius didn't have to try to make small talk.

“So, Mr. Potter, how was America?” Narcissa asked in an attempt to use a neutral topic to make Harry feel welcome.

“Brilliant,” Harry replied with a soft smile. “When I first went, Lily was only three years old. I bought an RV – which is a bit like a small house on wheels – and we traveled around the country. I brought a photo album...” Harry trailed off as he dug a tiny book out of his left back pocket. Then he unshrunk it and handed it over.

Narcissa took the album and opened it to the first page. All of the pictures were taken with Wizarding Cameras and so moved. “She looks almost identical to Draco as a baby.” She held the book up so that Draco and Astoria could see the pictures too.

“I got lucky with her,” Harry murmured with an expression of pure adoration in his eyes. “She was always such a happy baby that she taught me how to be happy too.” His smile faded as he looked down at his hands in his lap. “Even if it did take a few years.”

When Narcissa got to a picture of Lily performing with a bunch of other kids, Draco took the album and set it on the table so that Harry could see it too.

“Why did you let her do this?” Draco wondered, voicing his deepest concern at the moment. “Isn't this a bit dangerous for such a young child?” Especially since Lily couldn't have been more than six or seven in the picture.

“Are you kidding?” Harry asked with a light scoff. “I couldn't stop her! We went to a Cirque du Soleil performance in New York City and she lit up like a Christmas tree! It was all she could talk about for months, and so I finally did some research and found out that there were a handful of schools in the country. I picked the one that seemed the best for both of us, and we moved to a city called St. Paul, Minnesota. She took to it like a fish to water.”

“But what if she fell and got hurt?” Draco asked with a frown.

Harry shrugged. “They have a lot of safety measures in place to prevent that, but more importantly, I always assumed that she'd one day learn to fly on a broom and play Quidditch. Such danger is just a part of growing up in the Wizarding World.”

“I suppose,” Draco admitted reluctantly, wondering if he'd feel the same if his son was older. As it was, he couldn't picture letting Scorpius do anything more dangerous than run through the garden. And _maybe_ climb a tree if Draco was on hand to catch him if he fell.

Copious giggling caught all their attention. Lily had progressed from teaching Scorpius how to walk on his hands to cartwheels. Scorpius was having trouble and kept tumbling halfway through – which was why they were both giggling.

Lily did an entire circle of cartwheels around her brother, singing as she went: “ _Now I'm walking on sunshine, whoa oh, I'm walking on sunshine, whoa oh, I'm walking on sunshine, whoa oh oh, And don't it feel good, Hey, all right now_ !”

“She has such a lovely voice,” Astoria complimented with a sincere smile. “Are you worried about her starting Hogwarts?”

“Yes!” Harry confessed rather more honestly than he'd planned. “She doesn't want to go and doesn't care anything about being a witch. She wants to go home, and I'm afraid that if we do, she'll eventually have outbursts of uncontrollable magic that will get her in trouble.”

“She'll have fun at Hogwarts,” Draco murmured, mostly sure it was true. “And then she'll stop wanting to go back.”

“I hope you're right,” Harry replied with a tiny smile. “Otherwise... Well, there's always a school of Witchcraft and Wizardry in America, I suppose. I just wanted her to go to the same school I did. It was my first real home, and I think she'd love the rich history and tradition of it if she gave it an honest try.”

The table fell silent again as they continued to look through the photo album. Suddenly, Lily startled them. She tugged on Draco's sleeve and cleared her throat.

“Mr. Malfoy, sir, can I let Sunshine hunt in your garden?” Lily asked hesitantly. “She can smell prey and is getting antsy. I promise that she won't hurt anyone.”

Draco looked to his mother and father – who had come closer to the table when Lily did. Both nodded subtly. “I suppose that would be alright.”

Lily gave him a brilliant grin. “Thank you!” Then she bounced over to Harry and loudly whispered in his ear. “Daddy, am I supposed to call him father?”

“Er...” Harry droned, not entirely sure how to answer that.

Draco took a deep breath to tame the dismay he felt – and the stinging pang he'd experienced when she'd called him Mr. Malfoy. When he felt calm again, he smiled at her encouragingly. “You can call me Draco, if you like.”

“Don't be silly!” Scorpius burst out, slipping his hand into hers. “You're my sister because my papa is your papa. You should call him that!”

Lily felt her heart melt and gave her brother an adoring grin. “You make an excellent point! I'll give it a try later on. Do you want to pet Sunshine?”

Scorpius immediately took a step back and stared warily at the golden snake around her neck. At the moment, it circled her neck perfectly and looked like nothing more than a solid gold band around her neck with decorative snake features, but he remembered how it had come to life when she threatened their father. Lily hissed to her snake lovingly.

“ _Come down now, love, they say you can hunt_!”

Sunshine lifted her head and flicked her tongue over Lily's neck as if kissing her. “ _I smell prey I've never hunted before_ .” She unwound herself and slithered down Lily's arm, returning to her normal size as she did so.

“What breed of snake is Sunshine?” Narcissa asked with interest.

“Oh... no breed and all breeds,” Lily replied with a shrug. “There's a group of people called the Minnesota Herpetological Society, and one of them is a wizard who breeds magical snakes. He takes traits from any snake he likes and injects them into the eggs of his magical babies. For example, Sunshine was created from an egg lain by a variety of Black Mamba. The egg was injected with traits from other magical snakes until she had a little bit of everything, et voila! Ma petite fille, mon couer, mon serpent.” The love she felt for her familiar was so obvious that it was dripping from her voice.

Lily watched Sunshine disappear into the garden, and then turned to pierce Draco with her gaze. “The Black Mamba is considered the second deadliest snake in the world. A bite from her will kill a person in a matter of seconds if an antidote is not administered immediately.”

“Er...” Draco droned on for a moment because he couldn't think of anything to say to that.

Lucius couldn't help but feel a little impressed by his unexpected granddaughter. “Is that a threat?”

“Oh no,” Lily assured him with a happy grin. “I already warned him; there's no need to do it again. This was just giving him information he might want to know.”

Harry covered his mouth with a fist so that he could hide a snicker and pretend that it was a cough.

Astoria decided that a change of subject was necessary. “Would you like to sit down for a moment, Lily, and enjoy a spot of tea?”

“Sure,” Lily replied with a shrug. She and Scorpius sat down next to each other, which put Lily right between Harry and her brother.

Scorpius was frowning. “You don't like papa... Why not? Papa is the best papa in the world!” Draco hid a pleased smile at that.

Lily smiled at her brother. “It's not that I don't like him, I simply do not know him. All I know is that he made my daddy upset, and that makes me angry.”

Scorpius was silent for a moment as he thought this over, then he looked over at his father. “Well... how did you make him upset.”

Draco sighed reluctantly. “That is not something I want to talk about.”

Harry gave Scorpius a friendly smile. “Your father and I have been upsetting each other our entire lives. We went to Hogwarts together and never did anything but argue. We were never truly friends.”

Scorpius frowned as he thought this over. “Wait a mo.... I thought... I thought babies could only be made between two people who loved each other!”

“Er...” Harry rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Er...” Draco added, also flustered as to how he was supposed to respond to that.

“Unless there was a magical accident,” Harry blurted out. “I thought I was taking a headache potion, but instead, it was a potion that helped create a baby.”

“I wondered about that,” Draco murmured. He hadn't quite thought that Harry would purposely take a fertility potion without telling him, but he had no idea how else to explain it.

Lily giggled. “My daddy is such a dunderhead sometimes! Last month, Uncle George sent him a package of chocolates, and when daddy ate one, he turned into a parrot for ten whole minutes! Even  _I_ could have told him not to eat anything from Uncle George!”

Harry flushed. “You didn't tell me the chocolates were from George until  _after_ I ate one!”

Lily smirked at him. “I just wanted to see what Uncle George was working on now.”

Harry harrumphed and rolled his eyes.

Lily snickered and grinned at Scorpius. “The best part was that as a parrot, he could only repeat what I said! I had him saying: _Daddy is a dunderhead_ ; over and over.”

Scorpius giggled. “He said that?”

“Yep!” Lily confirmed gleefully.

Draco looked away to try to hide the fact that he was having trouble not laughing at the mental image of Harry as a parrot mimicking his daughter.

“Who's Uncle George?” Scorpius wondered with a confused frown.

“He's one of Uncle Ron's brothers,” Lily explained, not realizing that Scorpius didn't know Ron either. “They own Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes – which is the _best shop in the world_! Have you been to it? They sell Pygmy Puffs, which are adorable! Sadly, every time I get one, Sunshine thinks I've gotten her a snack.”

“No... I don't think I have,” Scorpius replied, a finger pressed to his lower lip as he tried to remember.

“That's too bad,” Lily murmured sympathetically. “Whenever Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione came to visit us, he'd bring me a bag of tricks. I once accidentally set off some Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder in a restaurant and all the muggles thought that the power had gone out. Grandpa Arthur thought it was great fun, but Grandma Molly gave me such a stern talking to!”

Draco chuckled. “As I said, such a handful.”

“Yes, at times,” Harry admitted with an adoring smile at his daughter. “I can definitely see myself in her, but then I can also clearly see your influence.”

Draco recalled a few moments in which Lily had acted rather Slytherin, but he wanted to see if he could prompt Harry to provide more details. “Oh? How so?” After all, she had grown up completely away from all Malfoys or even the local magical community. It might be understandable if she was nothing at all like Draco.

Harry smirked mischievously at Draco for a second before winking at his daughter. “Can you sing that song you love?” 

“Which one?” Lily asked with a mischievous smirk of her own. “This one? _I'd love to kill you with a kiss... I'd like to strike you down with bliss... I'd like to tie you up in knots, until your hearrrt stops! I'd love to kill you with a glance, I'd like to put you in a trance, I'd like to drug you with my scent and use you in the mo...ment...”_ The next part was a haunting vocalization that added to the eeriness of the song in general.

Draco raised a brow at Harry. “And you think she gets this from me?”

“ _I'd love to kill you as you eat.”_

Harry chuckled. “I think she has quite a few Slytherin tendencies, yes.”

“ _The pleasure would taste so_ – What does Slytherin mean?” Lily asked, interrupting her song.

Everyone but Harry and Scorpius gaped at her incredulously. Harry chuckled. 

“I didn't want to explain this and influence you in any way, but at Hogwarts, there are four houses that students are sorted into. Each house has different traits. Slytherins are known for their cunning and ambition,” Harry explained.

“ _OH_! I get it! So when you say that I have Slytherin traits,” she got up and stood on her chair to point at the sky as she talked. “You're referring to the fact that I _will be the world famous star of the Cirque du Soleil if I have to literally dance on the shoulders of those who came before me to do it!_ ” Lily felt like she was practically on fire with determination. As she sat back down, a thought occurred to her that made her smirk almost exactly like Draco at his smuggest. “Say, daddy? Will they teach me a spell at this Hogwarts place that will turn people onto frogs?”

“Er...” Harry hesitated to answer. On the one hand, such knowledge might entice her to go, but on the other hand, such knowledge could be dangerous in her hands.

Lucius couldn't help but chuckle. His granddaughter was such a delight. Especially when she made Harry uncomfortable.

“Actually, yes,” he answered her. “It's called transfiguration and – human transfiguration, turning people into frogs – is an advanced spell.”

Lily grinned at her new grandfather, gesturing theatrically as she talked. “And – hypothetically speaking – if a rival of mine just so  _happened_ to turn into a frog and accidentally get eaten by – oh I don't know – a snake, would there be a way anyone could figure out what happened to her?”

Lucius laughed outright. “Oh, I like her!”

“Lily Anna Potter!” Harry burst out at the same time. “Under _no_ circumstances will you turn _anyone_ into a frog!”

“Of course not, daddy!” Lily responded with a tone like she was scandalized that he'd think such a thing.

“Not even 'hypothetically,'” Harry added.

“I wouldn't have to,” Lily stated confidently. “I'm the best there is so I have no need to worry about rivals.”

“Well, she certainly has the Malfoy confidence,” Astoria remarked with an amused smile.

“Yes,” Narcissa agreed with a grin.

Scorpius tugged on Lily's hand. “Do we have to keep talking to the adults? I want to do something fun.”

“What would you like to do?” Lily asked curiously.

“I love to dance!” Scorpius announced. “Would you dance with me?”

“I'd love to!” Lily replied with a happy smile. 

Scorpius slipped out of his chair and bowed to her before holding out his hand. Lily stood up and place her hand in his, curtsying to him as if she was wearing a skirt even though she was wearing a shirt and pants in shades of purple in an oriental style perfect for tumbling in. Scorpius led her through a formal dance reminiscent of a waltz.

“That's adorable,” Harry murmured as he watched them.

“It is,” Draco murmured in agreement. Then he sighed a bit heavily. “Listen... I'm sorry I abandoned you so completely. I now very much wish that I had at least opened your owls. I know I probably don't deserve this, so thank you for bringing her here.”

Harry narrowed his eyes stubbornly, not quite willing to just forgive Draco so easily. “Yeah, well, I asked her if she wanted to meet you properly and she said no,” he shrugged as if thinking:  _and I don't blame her._ “But she wanted to meet her brother so... here we are.”

“Mr. Potter,” Astoria addressed him politely. “May I ask, well, my husband won't tell me exactly what happened back then, and I can't help but wonder...”

Harry nodded slowly. “It all boils down to the fact that we were just not compatible, I suppose. We wanted different things.”

“Such as?” Astoria pressed delicately.

Harry shrugged and shook his head. A glance at Draco showed that he was impressed that Harry hadn't called him names or accused him of any wrong doing. After a moment of silence, Harry met Astoria's eyes again.

“In truth, I treated him as if he was still a Death Eater, and he didn't deserve that,” Harry confessed.

“So...” Astoria murmured as she thought this over. “It was your fault the two of you broke up?”

“I suppose it was,” Harry replied.

“Not entirely,” Draco admitted softly, focusing on his wife so that he didn't have to look at Harry. “We fought a lot and I grew weary of it. I overreacted and left when I probably should have tried a bit harder to work through our differences.”

Narcissa took a sip of her tea and set the cup down gently. “Given how much the two of you disliked one another throughout school, I was honestly surprised that you managed to stay together as long as you did, a short few months though it was.”

“Yeah,” Harry agreed.

Draco decided that they  _needed_ to change the subject. “When is her birthday?”

Harry snorted a soft chuckle and looked away evasively for a moment before answering. “June 7 th – just two days after yours.”

“So I missed it already,” Draco stated in disappointment. It was currently the middle of August, which was why Harry had returned to England in the first place – the train to Hogwarts left King's Cross Station on September 1st.

“If you want to get her something, try an outrageously bold costume,” Harry suggested. 

“I'll keep that in mind,” Draco promised with a smile.

 

***

 

McGonagall gave Lily a stern look from across her desk. It still amazed her that the daughter of Harry Potter had been sorted into Slytherin, but since she was the spitting image of her other father, that might not be so surprising after all. Certainly not as surprising as the fact that Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy had created a child in the first place!

“I have very little choice in this matter Miss Potter,” McGonagall informed her. “Your Professors report that you not only refuse to do your homework, but you also refuse to attend your detentions – both of which cost your House quite a lot of points. If this keeps up, I'll have no choice but to expel you.”

“Good,” Lily stated serenely. “Please do! I look forward to it.”

This quite frankly took the Headmistress aback. “I beg your pardon?”

Lily shifted just slightly forward in her chair, crossing one leg over the other and resting her entwined hands on her knee. “I am here under protest. I would much rather go home where I belong, but my daddy made me promise that I would at least try attending Hogwarts. I've tried it and I hate it! If you expel me now, daddy will have no choice but to bring me home.”

_There's a Slytherin if I've ever met one,_ McGonagall thought. She decided to take a moment to think this over before replying. “May I ask  _why_ you hate it here?”

Lily shrugged. “I'm sure that Hogwarts is the best school in the world for learning magic, but I don't want to be a witch. I  _want_ to be an acrobat! Back home, that's what I went to school for, and now I have to sit still all day long and try my best to squeeze in a bit of practice in the evenings.”

McGonagall frowned. “Saying you don't want to be a witch is like saying you don't want to be a girl.  _Not_ being one is impossible since it's part of who you are. You need to be here so that you can learn to control your magic.”

Lily sighed in mild frustration. “Headmistress, do you have any idea how much control it takes to –” She cut herself short and pointed to an empty spot in the middle of the large office. “May I?”

McGonagall was frankly curious, so she nodded permission. Lily responded by casting a spell to conjure a rope, which she then magicked to float rigidly in the air about four feet off the floor. It was as simple as breathing for Lily to swing herself up onto the rope.

“Control and discipline are important for so much more than just casting spells,” Lily explained as she slowly leaned to one side and shifted until she was on her hands and balancing perfectly upside down. “Let me show you part of the performance I was part of last year for our talent showcase.”

McGonagall transfigured the chair Lily had been sitting in into a large cushion and Leviosa'd it over to the floor under the rope. “Proceed.”

Lily danced, turned cartwheels, and flipped back and forth across the rope as easily as if she was on a wide floor rather than an extremely narrow line. She ended by conjuring a bouquet of flowers and pretending to accept them from an audience member before curtsying theatrically several times.

McGonagall was rather impressed, and not just by the clearly talented performance. “You've only been here a week, Miss Potter, how in the world have you managed to learn such advanced conjuration already?”

“It's like I was trying to tell you,” Lily replied with a smile. “I have an enormous amount of control and concentration. Did my professors happen to mention that I haven't had trouble casting any of the spells we're learning? I get them all perfectly on the first try. So, when I realized that I'd have to make my own equipment if I wanted to practice, I read a book on conjuration and...” she shrugged and conjured a glass to cast an Aguamenti into so that she could wet her slightly dry throat.

“If you were as passionate about learning magic as you are about acrobatics, I'm certain that you'd equal the brilliance of Headmaster Dumbledore one day,” McGonagall informed her with a fond smile. “As for today, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to disappoint you. You will be confined to your dormitory in lieu of detention while I write to your father. If he insists that you remain in our school, then I will ask him to help me come up with alternative methods of punishment should you continue to refuse to do your homework.”

“Why must there be punishment?” Lily wondered with a frown.

“What?” McGonagall asked in confusion. “How else do you think it would be fair to the other students?”

“Simply _being here_ is a punishment, in my opinion. So, rather than go out of your way to make me as miserable as possible, why not – if daddy makes me stay here – why not work _with_ me so that I do some of the things you want while still getting to do some of the things _I_ want,” Lily suggested.

McGonagall couldn't help but be curious. “What do you have in mind?”

“For example, I will never waste a moment doing homework when I need every moment I can spare working on my abilities,” Lily stated flatly. “So rather than continually dock points and give me detentions, why not base my grade solely on how well I do on tests and how well I can perform the spells and techniques I'm taught? That way, I'm learning like you want, but I'll still have time to do the things I want. Also, rather than continue on with all the classes I've been assigned, I would prefer it if I only had to take Charms, Transfiguration, and Potions. That way, I will hopefully have plenty of time and opportunity to move my body. Sitting all day is simply murder on me!”

McGonagall had to think this over for a few minutes. First years were always assigned the three classes she mentioned in addition to Herbology, Astronomy, History of Magic, and Defense Against the Dark Arts because those seven classes gave students a solid foundation when it came time to take their O.W.L.s – but not every student had the aptitude for transfiguration or potions. Utterly inept students could be kicked out of a class, which meant that nothing was truly required. Even more peculiar to think about was that none of the O.W.L.s would help Lily Potter accomplish her goals in life. She didn't want to be an Auror or a Potions Master. Thus, it might be prudent to at least consider Lily's request if Harry insisted that she stay.

Rather than agree or not, McGonagall returned the cushion to its former state and gestured for Lily to stop twirling about the rope and sit down. “Before I can make any decisions, I must speak with your father. Please return to your dormitory and stay there until further notice.”

“Yes Headmistress,” Lily murmured, silently praying that her father would just relent and take her home already.

 

***

 

Harry looked back and forth between the two letters, trying to decide which one to respond to first. The first one he had received was a request to meet up with and talk to Draco, while the second was a rather disturbing report from Minerva on Lily's behavior. With a sigh, Harry scribbled an invitation to visit Grimmauld Place and sent it off with the owl that had delivered Draco's request. 

“I'll have to think this over a bit more before I reply,” Harry informed the other waiting owl as he cast a spell to adjust the wards so that Draco could apparate or Floo in. The owl hooted softly in understanding.

It only took about 10 minutes for the fire in Harry's kitchen to light up and Draco to step out of it. Harry was sipping on a glass of firewhiskey and gestured for Draco to help himself. 

“Something the matter?” Draco asked in concern.

“It seems Lily is so miserable that she is doing whatever she can to get expelled,” Harry explained.

“It's only been a week,” Draco pointed out incredulously.

“I should have expected this,” Harry stated with a heavy sigh. “She only told me every day for months that she didn't want to go to Hogwarts, but I wouldn't listen to her.”

“I – for one – am glad you didn't,” Draco replied. “I'd have never known about her otherwise.”

Harry merely shrugged.

Draco took the opportunity to pour himself a drink so that he didn't have to look at Harry. “I was hoping to talk to you about shared custody and visitation.”

“You're joking, right?” Harry asked, dumbfounded. 

“Not at all,” Draco assured him, meeting Harry's eyes to convey how serious he was.

Harry shook his head. “Not going to happen. For one, if I insist that Lily remain in Hogwarts, she'll only be able to see either one of us during the holidays. There won't really be  _time_ to share her. And for two, if I bring her home, she'll be back in the school she wants to go to. Unless you planned to move to Minnesota with us, you'd only get to see her for a couple of days when she has time off for the holidays.”

“Perhaps we could compromise,” Draco suggested prudently. “I did some asking around... There's a school here in London called the National Centre for Circus Arts. Perhaps Lily would be happier there than Hogwarts, and then she'll be able to live here with you and visit me – and Scorpius – whenever she wants.”

Harry stroked his chin in thought. “Hmm...” If he was honest, the thought was appealing. 

After eleven years of being the center of each other's world – eight of them without the safety net of friends and family to fall back on – even just one week without Lily was devastating to Harry. He strongly suspected that even if he held firm to his belief that Lily belonged in Hogwarts today, it probably wouldn't take much longer than another week for him to crack and completely fall apart. Better yet, if he could convince Lily to follow Draco's suggestion, Harry would get to see his loved ones more than a couple of times a year.

“I'll talk to her about it,” Harry finally responded. 

Draco smiled, relieved to hear that. “Just so you know, I didn't mean to imply that I wanted to take her away from you – or anything like that. When I said shared custody and visitation, I simply meant that I wanted to see her as often as possible. I also feel that I should be equally responsible for her. For example, whatever those circus classes cost, I should pay half.”

“I never needed to worry about paying for her classes,” Harry demurred, flapping a hand as if waving the subject away. “I'll have to look into this school in London before I talk to Lily though. Most of the students at Circus Juventas aren't quite as full time as Lily. Most only take one or two classes at a time and work around their regular school schedule, but since I always figured that she'd go to Hogwarts, I homeschooled her, which allowed her to devote more time to her circus school – taking as many classes as she could. I'm not sure she'll agree to this London school if it doesn't have an option to do the same.”

Draco winked mischievously at Harry. “If they don't, we could always cast Confundus Charms on everyone until they agree to do it anyway.”

Harry chuckled. He smiled as he remembered that when he and Draco weren't fighting, Draco always had the power to cheer him up. When not directly insulting or picking on Harry, Draco was quite funny.

“That's true, we could!”

“So... it's a plan?” Draco asked hopefully.

“Well... it's a start,” Harry acknowledged with a short nod and a smile.

 

**Author's Note:**

> So I know I'm leaving things at a bit of a mini cliff hanger, but I'm still trying to figure out what's going to happen next. Thus there will likely be a third part. That said, if I never write it, you can assume that this pair struggles for a while before finding their way back together :-)


End file.
